A. 7-10 years – or longer!

A judgment is a legal document stating that you have defaulted on a loan or a mortgage and will stay listed on your credit report for seven years. Even if the judgment has been paid in full, bureaus may list it on your credit report for seven years.  If the debt has not been paid, the judgment can be resubmitted to the court and be reported as a renewed judgment.

The original creditor who filed the judgment is the only one who can remove it or have the court “vacate” the judgment.  You can try to contact the creditor and negotiate some kind of repayment schedule, but it will remain on your report until it is paid.  At least that way, you know it will not be renewed once the statute of limitations on it has run out.

You can also have a judgment removed by the credit bureaus if they are listing and erroneous report.  Dispute the judgment with a letter, detailing all the information you need supplied to you in order to verify the debt.  The credit bureaus then have 30 days in which to respond and prove the debt is real, or they must remove it from your credit report.

First – what does it mean to have a judgment. A judgment is defined as follows: a legal document declared by the court that you are in default of a loan or other financial instrument.

Having a judgment listed on your credit report will certainly hurt your credit rating.  Judgments typically will remain on your credit report until the debt is paid, which means for the next 7-10 years.

Second, a judgment process works like this: The person to whom the judgment is set against has 30 days to respond to the judgment.  If you feel it is unjustified, or you missed the court appearance because you were improperly served, you may have recourse to have the decision reversed.

For a full article on how to deal with a default judgment

Many people will try to have the judgment removed by paying it in full or negotiating some kind of payment arrangement with the creditor.

A choice of last resort is to file a Chapter 7 Personal Bankruptcy.  This may, but not always, wipe out the judgment but will also hurt your credit as well.  Bankruptcies will remain on a person’s credit report for 10 years.   It is only advisable to take this route only if you have other outstanding debt that you are not able to pay.

Child support payments and delinquent income taxes are a different story. They are not dismissible by filing bankruptcy.  They will stay on your credit report as a matter of public record and will not be removed until they are paid.  Of course, you can legally and ethically dispute any questionable bad credit item. I used a company called Lexington Law who can counsel you on ways to remove stubborn questionable credit items including judgments and public record.

First, let’s start with the basics: Judgments are legal documents signed by a judge in a court of law, which states you are in default of a loan or other financial instrument.   The judgment gives the creditor leverage in order to collect on a debt you owe.  It puts them ahead of anyone else to whom you may owe money.

This includes any government agency, which encompasses student loans, child support, income tax and mortgages.  Judgments are usually not reversible unless they have been filed in error.  In some cases, the judgments have been stayed (removed) due to faulty information or incorrect filing. 

If the judgment has been removed, it is up to the debtor to have it removed from their credit report!

In other words, YOU need to take steps to have a judgement removed from your credit report…and YES almost any judgements can be legally removed.

One of the ways to do this is to do it yourself, by contacting the three credit bureaus that monitor your credit.  Equifax, Trans Union and Experian are the major ones in the United States.  This can be time consuming and extremely frustrating.

You would be better off by contacting the professionals at Lexington Law, who are experts in credit repair.  These are the same guys that I used. It was very affordable and a true bargain considering they deleted my credit report judgment.

If you have a judgment placed against you, that means you have defaulted on a loan or other financial instrument.    A judgment is a legal document of last resort; filed by the creditor against you to collect the money you owe them.

A judgment can be filed by a person or by an entity.  This means if you are behind in your child support payments, both the recipient and the state in which you live can file a judgment against you.

The same is true for delinquent income tax payments.  The federal government will file a judgment against you, and most likely a lien on your finances as well.  You can have your paycheck garnished and your bank accounts frozen.

When someone is in this much financial trouble, the only way they are able to get some relief is to file Chapter 7 personal bankruptcy, or Chapter 13 bankruptcy, which enables a court to work out a repayment plan.   Both of these scenarios will remain on your credit report and appear negatively on your credit rating.

However, both back child support payments and delinquent income tax payments are not discharged in a bankruptcy plan. In other words, these items will not be removed by filing bankruptcies.   The best thing you can do is to try to work out a repayment plan for whatever you owe, and be diligent in making the payments.  All judgments will remain on your credit report for a period of 7 years, and bankruptcies will remain for 10.

Thanks for all your great info….I have a question…
You said that maximum is 7 years but I have a bad record for 9 years and
5 month as of today which I had no knowledge of. It just popped up.

I do not recall any debt I had in 2000. I was working overseas in
1998-2003. I requested for investigation. The result of reinvestigation
came back with the “released of lien” 5 years ago on record. But when I
contacted Equifax they said that it will be on record indefinitely
unless the party that initiated the lien (City recorders) sends a letter
or document to remove it.

What is going on?  I can understand if I owed
something, they would do this but the record shows that it was released.
Why would they not remove the record when it states that it was
released?  And why the “Release of lien” is only stated on the result of
reinvestigation and not on the initial credit report?

This is obviously the result of sloppy record keeping on the part of the credit bureau. Sadly, as a result, you will have to suffer the consequences by having to engage in additional work, effort, (perhaps money) to correct their error.

That being said, we have to accept the system as is and plow forward. Here are some next steps to consider:
(a) try to obtain documentation from the original creditor who is the city recorder here. If you provide documentation, the bureaus will sometimes – but not always – update their records based upon that documentation.

Assuming you get that documentation you should send the information via snail mail to the bureaus. (Do not use their online dispute system because it limits the amount of information you provide for your dispute. In other words, the online system is all ‘zeros and ones’ and allows for no explanation – which is obviously needed in your case.)

(b) If option a fails above, you may consider more aggressive tactics like debt validation. This is targeted directly towards the original creditor who is reporting the negative information. Often the original creditor will contact the bureaus and direct them to remove or update the offensive information.

I hope this helps – best of luck!

A default judgment is a judgment placed against you by a court of law by some who claims you owe them money.  It can be a corporation, business, or someone can file personally against you if you have borrowed money from them.

A judgment is the only recourse a creditor has against a debtor to secure they will be repaid.  A judgment placed against you will affect your credit rating and do you considerable harm when applying for credit.  The judgment will appear on your credit report with the three major credit reporting agencies.

When is a Default Judgement Entered?
The only time a default judgment is claimed against you is if you did not show up in court to contest or confirm this claim.  If you were not aware of a judgment being placed against you, there are laws in place to protect you.  You do have certain rights to enable you to have the judgment vacated or removed.

How to Reverse a Default Judgement
If you feel the information used against you is incorrect, you have the to have the judgment vacated.  This can only be granted by a judge, so you must begin the process as soon as you can.  You cannot schedule a new trial or an appeal until this is done.

Steps to Vacate a Default Judgement
There are steps you need to take to begin the process of vacating a judgment.  First, go to your local small claims court and ask the clerk for a “Notice of Motion To Vacate Judgment” paying a nominal fee that can differ from state to state.  You MUST fill this form out within thirty days of receiving your Notice of Judgment so that it can be time stamped and filed with the proper court.

A clerk will timestamp the paperwork, set the date and time in which you must appear.  The clerk will notify your accuser as well.  If you were not aware of the Notice of Judgment filed against you, the law also states you have 180 days to file a Notice of Motion to Vacate Judgment.    A judge may consider your circumstances, but you have to appear before the court to be heard.

Time can be used to gather evidence or proof if you need to state your case.  You can ask the judge for a continuance or postponement of your trial to support your circumstance.

If the judge decides to deny your request to vacate the default judgment, then you have 10 days in which to file an appeal against his denial.

Thanks for all the awesome info. I have been reading through all the emails that I get daily. I do have a couple of questions for you.

1) I went through a divorce a few yrs ago and I have a repo on my credit. Other than paying it off how can I remove it from my credit. If I send in a dispute letter how can I word it correctly?

2) My ex wife added me to one of her credit cards as a user, and now she has defaulted on the account and its on my report as a 4,600$ charge off. I did not open this account and in fact she opened it before we got married. Am I responsible for this?

Thanks for all the info and I look forward to your communication.

Respectfully,
R.

Dear R.,

I’ll answer the second question first.

Your wife’s credit card charge off shouldn’t impact your credit. So long as you were only an authorized user, none of that bad credit is allowed to be used against you. (After all you never signed the contract and had no legal obligation for the debt).

As for the repo on your credit, actually paying the repo won’t remove it! It will change the listing from “unpaid” to “paid” but won’t actually help your credit.

Unfortunately lenders view repossessions nearly the same whether they are paid or not. The best thing you can do is to dispute any questionable repossession and place the burden of proof on the creditors involved.

I just launched a brand new website dedicated to repossession and your credit. You can see it here: www.repocredit.net

So, what is a judgement anyways?

What is a Judgment Debt? Things to Know About Judgements from Credit

In point of fact, a judgment is the final effort of a creditor to collect a debt owed. Prior to reaching this point, many things have likely transpired.

To begin with, you have entered into an agreement with a creditor to purchase an item and pay for the item at a later date, normally through installment payments. Or, alternately, you may have purchased an item using a credit card and, subsequently, owe the credit card company for the funds, or credit, fronted for the purchase of the item.

So, at this point, you have purchased your item and taken it home to enjoy. Unfortunately, the week following your purchase, you are laid off from work due to the economy! You, of course, are confident that you will be able to find another job quickly. However, after four months of diligently searching, it becomes evident that you were mistaken. Now, you have creditors calling constantly and are receiving what seems to be a barrage of daily written demands from those same creditors for payment.

Most likely your creditor has attempted to contact you to try to negotiate a payment plan. In the beginning, he may have been sympathetic and understanding; however, as time continued to march by, he likely became less so. Eventually, your creditor will probably become tired of using his financial resources and time to collect the debt.

After several months, your creditor may decide to file a legal suit against you to compel you to pay the debt.

(Unfortunately, I must note at this point that when you entered into the agreement with the creditor or the credit card company, you likely signed a written contract which gave the creditor or credit card company the right to sue you if you defaulted on your payments.) With this legal suit, your creditor will attempt to gain a “judgment” against you by proving that the debt is legitimate and that you owe the sum due.

Getting Served with Papers

Many people become worried and anxious when they are served with legal papers. Many even contemplate not showing up at the court hearing. Far too many times, people, in fact, do not appear for the court hearing. This is a HUGE mistake! By not showing up, you automatically default (lose) the case precisely because of your absence.

If the case does make it to court and you end up losing, your creditor will be granted a judgment against you for the amount of the debt and you will be served with a Notice of Judgment. This Notice of Judgment will allow you 30 days to pay the debt in full.

If the debt is not paid within 30 days, the creditor will be able to take certain actions against you in order to collect the outstanding debt. Some of the legal remedies which the creditor may be able to utilize include garnishment of wages, liens against real property, and seizure of assets.

It is important to understand that if a judgment is issued against you, your credit score will be drastically affected. In fact, it will likely plummet if a judgment is rendered in your creditor’s favor. It is best to try to negotiate with your creditor so he does not decide to pursue a court-ordered judgment.

And, in the worst case scenario, if the judgement does get placed on your credit report, you can always legally dispute any questionable judgement and possibly remove the judgement from your credit report.

Your creditor threatened a court-ordered judgment but you thought that, if you waited long enough, he would get tired of pursuing you and let it go! Unfortunately, that’s not how it turned out and now you discovered: “I Have a Judgement Against Me!”

What’s worse, you didn’t realize how much this would affect your credit score. The fact is, a judgment can remain on your credit history anywhere from 10-12 years and, if the debt is still unpaid at the end of this time period, your creditor may be able to renew the judgment. Even a paid judgment will remain on your credit report for 7 years from the date paid!

So, you’re wondering how to go about removing the judgment. The first thing you need to know is that it is legal for a credit reporting bureau to remove an inaccurate entry. Also, a judgment may be deleted if it is disputed and not verified by the creditor within the mandated time period.

The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) was enacted in order to allow consumers to dispute items which are negative in nature. Judgments and public records are included in the FCRA.

To dispute a judgment on your credit report, you should send a dispute letter to the credit bureaus which are reporting the judgment. There are three major credit reporting agencies – TransUnion, Experian, and Equifax.

With other types of negative entries such as credit card debt and car loans, the credit reporting agency would be forwarding the dispute to creditors such as credit card companies, banks, car dealerships, loan companies, etc.

However, with a judgment or public record, the credit reporting agency will forward the dispute to the governmental agency which maintains the judgment, normally located in the county courthouse of your resident county.

Recording and verifying judgments is performed by county employees, not high-tech automated software programs. As it takes longer for a human to search legal records and verify a judgment or public record than clicking a computer key a few times, it is often the case that a judgment or public record request for verification is unable to be completed within the 30-day time limit. If this is the case, the credit reporting agency is legally required to remove the judgment entry from your credit history.

If you are hesitant about taking this process on yourself, you might consider employing the services of a seasoned and knowledgeable consumer rights attorney. An attorney who specializes in consumer rights has likely resolved hundreds, if not thousands, of similar cases during his career. Consider The Lexington Law Firm, who has removed thousands of judgment related entries.

To get started removing your judgment, dial: 800-230-1954. You will receive a free consultation and learn about ways to dispute questionable judgments on your credit history.

What is midland, any way? They are trying to collect on something that is over 10 years old telling me i still owe 700.00 dollars and my payment arrangements need to be updated. They also threatened to get a legal judgment against me.

What do I do, now?

First, a collection agency cannot unilaterally place a judgment against you. They need a court to officially enter a judgment.

Second, to obtain a judgment against you, they would need to file a lawsuit in the appropriate county and then follow through to prove that you legally owe the debt.

Third, perhaps you don’t even have a legal obligation to pay the debt. Consider checking out the statute of limitations. Most credit card statute of limitations are between 4 and 6 years. (that is extended if you have been making payments all along)

Fourth and finally, the odds are that they wouldn’t follow through with a judgment for a 700 debt. The costs of obtaining the judgment outweigh any value that it may bring. So, I would rest easy on this one.